Great Eastern Ranges Initiative An Investors Guide Vision: The Great Eastern Ranges Initiative (GER) brings people and organisations together to protect, link and restore healthy habitats over 3,600km, from western Victoria through NSW and the ACT to far north Queensland. Our Iconic Ranges The Great Eastern Ranges form a The beauty and high diversity of the Great Eastern mountainous spine that runs the length Ranges, their rich cultural and social history, and of the continent, separating the coast abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation attract millions of local and international visitors from the arid interior. They span a vast every year boosting our economy. 3,600 kilometers (2,237 miles) stretching from the majestic Grampian Ranges in In the future, the Great Eastern Ranges will play a western Victoria, along the Great Divide vital role in helping to reduce the impacts of climate change, ensure resilient ecosystems and provide and Eastern Escarpment of New South critical refuge areas for a plethora of native species Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, enabling them to move and adapt to a warming to the wet tropics and remote Cape York climate. Peninsula in Queensland's far northeast. However this spectacular landscape is under From their undulating heath covered slopes pressure: habitat for a range of unique species to the towering cliffs of Mount Kosciuszko the being lost and fragmented by rapid development, Great Eastern Ranges are a biodiversity hotspot, an expanding coastal population encroaching supporting 60% of Australia’s threatened animals from the east and climate change forcing cooler and 70% of its plants. Living fossils like the conditions upslope from the increasingly arid west. Wollemi Pine and the world’s richest diversity of ancient flowering rainforest plants provide living The Great Eastern Ranges Initiative (GER) is a connections to our deep geological history. grand vision to protect, restore and relink habitat to enable nature and people to continue to thrive. The Great Eastern Ranges form the watershed and headwaters for the major river catchments of eastern Australia, providing clean water for over two thirds of the continent’s population, whilst their dense forests soak up vast amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and filter the air we breath. Run-off from the ranges flows into the Great Artesian Basin on the one side, creating the only reliable source of water for much of inland eastern Australia, and into the Pacific Ocean on the other. “ The GER vision is an internationally significant investment in a better Australia and a continental scale response to climate change. Dr. Graeme Worboys, Former Vice Chair Mountains and Connectivity, International “ Union for Conservation of Nature World Commission on Protected Areas Glider photo © Ester Beaton The Great Eastern Ranges Initiative Cairns The Great Eastern Ranges Initiative empowered decision makers, resource (GER) brings people and organisations stewards and innovators through opportunities together to protect, link and restore for learning and involvement. healthy habitats over 3,600km, from We are a voluntary partnership involving more western Victoria through NSW and the than 250 local, regional and national organisations ACT to far north Queensland. representing a broad spectrum of natural resource Great Eastern managers and conservation stakeholders: GER has been developed to stem the loss of native Ranges Aboriginal people and field naturalists, Landcare species, provide natural solutions to a changing and local government, public land managers and climate, protect precious resources and ensure a research institutions, businesses and educators, healthy, resilient landscape for wildlife and people. policy makers and scientists. Since 2007, GER has been working in priority We take a strategic and scientific approach to regions across the ranges to deliver innovative conservation, working on collaborative projects solutions to: to relink the landscape at the local level, whilst • Sustain the habitats and migration routes of a aligning our efforts to assist natural processes at multitude of native animals and plants. the whole-of-landscape level. • Secure and rebuild carbon in one of the world’s HINTERLAND By concentrating our efforts in the highest priority 1 BUSH LINKS most resilient living carbon stores. places, we are achieving something far greater • Preserve the rivers, wetlands and lakes than the sum of our parts – securing the future of Brisbane that supply three quarters of Australia's 24 Queensland one of the world’s great landscapes and the wildlife BORDER million residents, farmers and industries with and people that depend upon it. 2 RANGES fresh water. ALLIANCE • Maintain the many cultural, social, scenic and New South Wales recreational values of the ranges for the health JALIIGIRR and wellbeing of local communities. 3 BIODIVERSITY • Ensure productive living landscapes. ALLIANCE • Build the next generation of skilled and KANANGRA BOYD HUNTER VALLEY 8 TO WYANGALA LINK 4 PARTNERSHIP Sydney ILLAWARRA TO SLOPES TO 5 SHOALHAVEN 9 SUMMIT 10 CENTRAL VICTORIA SOUTHERN BIOLINKS ALLIANCE Canberra 6 HIGHLANDS LINK KOSCIUSZKO TO 7 COAST Melbourne Victoria Unique Species The Great Eastern Ranges are home to more than 60% of Australia's threatened animals and 70% of its plants, and contain the continent's richest diversity of Eucalypt and Acacia species. Unique species like the Cassowary, Richmond Birdwing Butterfly, Koala, Wollemi Pine and Mountain Pygmy Possum all live within its valleys Living Fossils Tree-dwelling Kangaroos and peaks. In the future, the more reliable Thought to be long extinct, the Wollemi Pine was Superbly adapted to moving across the tree canopy, rainfall and higher altitudes of the Great Eastern rediscovered in a gorge in the Blue Mountains in 1994. the extraordinary Tree-kangaroos of Queensland’s Wet Ranges will serve as vital climate refuges for One of the world's rarest tree species dating back 200 Tropics have become restricted to high altitude areas species migrating from the dryer coastline and million years, this living fossil is one of several ancient and ever decreasing patches of remnant vegetation. inland Australia. rainforest plants found in the Great Eastern Ranges. st Koala Native Australian Cats Gliding Possums The iconic koala recognised around the world gets its The cat size Tiger Quoll is mainland Australia’s largest Australia is home to nine species of gliding possum, name from the Aboriginal word meaning "no drink". Once carnivorous marsupial. Since European settlement ranging in size from the world’s smallest gliding common across Australia, populations of this unique populations of this native predator have been mammal, the Feather-tailed Glider, to one of the marsupial have declined dramatically over the past few decimated and quolls now remain in only isolated most vulnerable, Queensland’s critically endangered decades primarily due to habitat loss and fragmentation. patches of rugged terrain. Mahogany Glider. Dinosaur Birds Painted Frogs Egg-Laying Mammals Shy and solitary, the unmistakable Cassowary of far north Unique amongst the frog world, coroboree frogs Inhabiting the riverbanks and forests of eastern Queensland sports a vivid blue neck, long drooping red produce their own poison rather than obtain it from Australia, the Platypus and Echidna are two of only wattles and high helmet. Cassowaries play an important their food. These tiny, striking frogs are restricted to five species in the world that lay eggs and suckle role in maintaining the diversity of rainforest trees by a small 400km2 patch in the sub alpine regions of their young. helping to disperse seeds over vast distances. southern NSW and Victoria. Iconic Landscapes Grounded in the bedrock of the third longest • Australia’s highest waterfall, Wallaman Falls, land-based mountain system on Earth, the largest exposed granite monolith, Bald Rock, and Great Eastern Ranges provide a spectacular tallest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko; backdrop to life. • Ancient volcanic remnants (Mount Surprise, Glasshouse Mountains, Border Ranges, Reflecting a unique geological heritage, they Warrumbungles); and are underlain with vast expanses of sandstone, interspersed with volcanic outcrops and pock-marked • Vast limestone cave systems (Jenolan, Wombeyan with limestone caves. These iconic landscapes and Buchan). Snowy River and the Australian Alps The green cauldron support a thriving nature-based tourism industry and The Snowy Mountains are inland Australia’s highest Occupying the lush subtropical cauldron formed by attract millions of national and international visitors. mountain range and contain Mount Kosciuszko, the the extinct shield volcanoes of the Border Ranges, the The Great Eastern Ranges encompass: continent’s tallest mountain which stands at 2,228 World Heritage listed Gondwana Rainforests include metres (7,309 feet). The snowies form part of the the most extensive areas of subtropical rainforest in • World Heritage Listed tropical rainforests, larger Australian Alps National Heritage Area, a major the world and nearly all of the Antarctic beech cool hanging swamps, striking views and sandstone tourist destination renowned for its scenic beauty temperate rainforest. These ancient forests provide pagodalands; and opportunities for outdoor recreation, particularly habitat for more than 200 rare or threatened plants skiing and hiking. and animals including the Spotted-tailed Quoll, Koala and Albert’s Lyrebird. Gariwerd: